To the World Economic Forum at Davos, where Hollywood A-lister Charlize Theron upped this year’s glamour quotient as she jetted into town to pick up an award for her humanitarian work.

Even the advertising giant Sir Martin Sorrell felt overshadowed, it seems. The WPP chief told one delegate in Switzerland that Davos has become more “showboaty”, lamenting the days when he could sit quietly with low-key characters such as News Corp tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his friend Barry Diller, the founder of Fox Broadcasting Company.

Sir Martin also remarked that he dislikes “Davosian” language – before going on to give a textbook example of Davos-speak by using the word “horizontality”. Not in the dictionary, when Diary checked.

The snow and ice means travelling between events at Davos can prove treacherous, so organisers traditionally issue delegates with crampons to fit to their own shoes. In previous years, these walking aids have been “slightly hopeless” bits of rubber. But this year – perhaps to encourage people to walk more in the spirit of “Green Davos” – the WEF-issue crampons are more advanced. Metal studded, rubber-bottomed, with a leather strap, they fit neatly to the heel of delegates’ shoes. Better still, there’s a small reflector strip on the back to add extra safety for night-time odysseys.

Status anxiety is a constant at Davos, fuelled by a system of badges that leads up to the coveted access-all-areas white badge. But what if the best Davos badge is not the white badge but no badge at all?

One inventive attendee has discovered that the most cost-effective way of doing Davos is to pay SFr 25 for a day pass to the Belvedere Hotel – where most of the parties take place – and then watch the televised debates from the hotel lounge. The rest is then up to your networking skills. Last year, said smooth-talking professional was swept into dinner by a VIP he “bumped into” on the promenade.

Overheard and over at Davos. JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon making an extravagant claim about quantitative easing. “They’ll be writing books about [QE] for a thousand years,” he said earnestly. Roll on 3013. Meanwhile, Dimon was less than amused when his one-time contemporary Bob Diamond made a cameo in the video montage at the CNBC panel debate, hosted by Dimon with Axel Weber of UBS. Apparently, Weber at least managed a “thin smile”.

Is everybody nappy?

Put one delegate’s suggestion of “Resplendent Dismalism” out of your head. The official theme of this year’s austerity-focused summit is, as everyone knows, “Resilient Dynamism”.

So it’s a shame that no one told the people printing the Davos programmes, who released a number of guides emblazoned with “Dynamic Resiliency” – a motto also shared by the nappy-maker Pampers. Baby steps towards fixing the global economy?

No crass commercialism in the Davos swag bag for delegates. This year’s austerity haul included a booklet on social entrepreneurs, a WEF-branded notebook, a programme of cultural events in Davos, and a complimentary DHL mailing envelope. Organisers’ punishment for Europe being extremely bad this year, no doubt.